Lack of cash keeps 2nd 'whip' at home in Arkansas

Former state Sen. Gilbert Baker ended up skipping the Republican National Convention.

Arkansas delegates had been told via email that Baker would serve as a deputy whip for Donald Trump's presidential campaign, working with chief whip Bud Cummins to "facilitate communications" between the Arkansas delegation and the campaign.

But the funding for Baker's trip failed to materialize, Cummins said.

After Baker received an invitation, "it was determined that there was no budget for a second whip in Arkansas so we couldn't bring him after all," Cummins said.

Baker, a former University of Central Arkansas lobbyist, was accused in a lawsuit of brokering campaign donations to then-Circuit Judge Mike Maggio. Maggio sharply reduced a judgment against a Faulkner County nursing home after receiving donations from its owner, Michael Morton. Maggio is asking to withdraw his guilty plea. Baker has not been charged with a crime.

Cummins has represented Baker in the resulting criminal investigation. However, "there's no connection between my representation of Gilbert and his temporary invitation to be a whip. In fact, I still don't know who the people are that he knows that invited him. They're just some people that are some portion of the campaign nationally, not in Arkansas."